Oklahoma: A Story Through Her People

MIAMI TRIBE
OF OKLAHOMA
Right: Tribal Business Committee from
left to right, Second Chief Dustin Olds,
Secretary/Treasurer Sarah Lawson,
Chief Douglas Lankford, Second
Councilperson Scott Willard and
First Councilperson Donya Williams.
Below: Tribal leader George Ironstrack leads
Eewansaapita students in war cry during
the annual Lacrosse match against Seneca
Cayuga youth.
In our language we are Myaamia—the
downstream people, now often pronounced
Miami. The United States government
recognizes us as a sovereign nation, the
Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. We originate from
the Great Lakes region, with homelands
lying within Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, lower
Michigan and Wisconsin.
We were exposed to early European contact
through the Jesuit missions in the late 1600s,
then the French and British invasion and the
struggle for control of the region. In those
days we numbered into tens of thousands.
During the years of struggle toward establishment
of the United States of America, our
people struggled to retain their homeland
and connection to that landscape. Our stories,
wisdom, victories and defeats are all recorded
in history. We are known.
The Greenville Treaty of 1795 required the
massive cession of lands, and vicious tenacity
of this country’s early leaders led to the Indian
Removal Act of 1830, which altered our place
and people forever.
Despite attempts to avoid our Tribe’s
removal beyond the Mississippi, required by
the Treaty of 1840, our ancestors, numbering
approximately 300 souls, were herded at
gunpoint and forced onto boats to travel from
eastern Indiana to the Ohio River. Steamboats
then took them west, down the Ohio River to
the Mississippi, up to the Missouri and across
to Westport Landing near Kansas City. They
then traveled south by horseback and wagon
to a reserve in the land of the Kaw people,
near today’s La Cygne, Kansas, where they
remained until the Treaty of 1867 required
them to move to the Indian Territory, known
today as Oklahoma. Upon arrival here, our
Nation numbered fewer than 100 adults.
Our first Tribal Constitution was adopted
in 1939, officially recognizing us as the
Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, and we have since
been governed by elected leaders. This Tribal
Business Committee continues the struggle
to retain our sovereignty and demand our
right to self-determination through our status
as a self-governing Nation.
The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma has shown
by action our absolute determination to
perpetuate our cultural identity and to reestablish
a land base for Myaamia citizens.
Through our Cultural Resources Office, our
Tribe has taken responsibility for the status
of our resources.
In full knowledge of the devastating effects
of the many assimilation tactics forced on our
people over the past 150 years, it recognizes
that our heritage, language and cultural
knowledge will live on. It also supports reclamation,
restoration, revitalization, preservation
and perpetuation efforts in response to
the effects of history and assimilation.
We actively reclaim what has been taken
from us—our language, traditions, ancestral
remains from museum shelves, and missing
objects of our culture.
The Natural Resources Office works with
the Nation’s growing land-base, ensuring
that Tribal land use is culturally appropriate.
This includes assisting our people’s return
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